The December 2017

American Geophysical Union 2017 Fall Meeting Issue

Editor’s Note

Greetings! This issue of The Giovanni

News is our annual AGU Fall Meeting

issue. And there’s something different

about it – the meeting, not the issue!

The meeting is in New Orleans this

year, rather than San Francisco. In this

issue, as we’ve done previously, we

have all of the talks and presentations

given by our GES DISC authors. The

abstracts for the presentations related

to Giovanni are provided for your

perusal. The titles of talks are in

green, so pay attention to the times!

Note that two of our authors are doing

eLightning presentations, a three-

minute talk followed by an electronic

poster session using a touchscreen

monitor.

That’s not all – we have Release Notes

for Versions 4.24 and 4.25 of Giovanni

(look for our polar projection example,

too), a Paper of Interest from recent

months, and a slogan inspired by …

well, you’ll probably figure it out.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Jim Acker

The Giovanni News Editor

Paper of Interest

Li, W., El-Askary, H., ManiKandan, K.P.,

Qurban, M.A., Garay, M.J., and

Kalashnikova, O.V. (2017) Synergistic use of

remote sensing and modeling to assess an

anomalously high chlorophyll-a event during

summer 2015 in the south central Red Sea.

Remote Sensing, 9(8), 778, 20 pages,

doi:10.3390/rs9080778.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging

Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observed

chlorophyll a concentrations (chl a) significantly

higher than normal in the central Red Sea in

June 2015. In this study, the authors sought to

determine the cause of this anomalous

phytoplankton bloom. Many different variables

(chl a, sea surface temperature (SST) and height

(SSH), mixed layer depth (MLD), ocean current

velocity and aerosol optical depth (AOD)) were

examined. The authors concluded that there

was not a single factor that dominated as a

cause of this bloom; rather, a combination of

factors affecting nutrient availability, both in the

water and in the atmosphere, were involved.

One factor that likely did not contribute was a

coastal dust event occurring in late June,

because lag analysis showed about a two-month

lag between dust outbreaks and increased chl a.

Release Notes, Giovanni Version 4.24 and 4.25

4.24 Release NotesRelease Date: 2017-10-31

New Features

Polar projection: This release includes support for North Polar and South Polar projections in map plots. The polar projection options are accessed via the Layers box which is available when the initial plot is displayed. To obtain a full 360o polar plot, use -180 for the West longitude, and 180 for the East longitude. See the ‘Projections’ sub-section in the ‘Plotting Data and Replotting Options’ section of the User Manual for an illustrated description of the polar projection option.

Earthdata Login: NASA recently changed their policy with regard to data access. Giovanni therefore now requires users to login before data can be downloaded. Plots can still be generated and downloaded without logging in, but you will notice you won’t be able to download data. The Earthdata Login button appears in the top right of the Giovanni web page. If you are logging into Earthdata for the first time, the Web pages linked below will help you obtain Earthdata login credentials:

• https://wiki.earthdata.nasa.gov/display/EL/How+To+Register+With+Earthdata+Login

• https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthdata-login

The User-Defined Climatology / Quasi-Climatology map has been renamed to Monthly and Seasonal Averages

New Data Variables

MOPITT (Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere)MOP03TM v007 (6 variables)MOP03JM v007 (3 variables)

Release Notes, Giovanni Version 4.24 and 4.25

4.25 Release NotesRelease Date: 2017-12-20

New Features

For maps, clicking on GeoTIFF under the Download icon will provide a data file to download, rather than an image. This file can be displayed by various image viewers.

Giovanni now reads in global attributes of granular start and end time through OpenSearch. This means that granules which do not have a time dimension or as a variable in the files can be added to Giovanni, as long as the time information is embedded in the global attributes.

Bug Fixes

Fixed several bugs related to maps visualizations, causing failures and delays.

The titles in the User-Defined Climatology (labeled ‘Monthly and Seasonal Averages’) maps and Seasonal Time-Series plots have been modified to more accurately describe the plot. For example, “Precipitation Rate monthly 0.25 deg. [TRMM TRMM_3B43 v7] mm/hrover 2009-Dec - 2014-Feb, Region 180W, 50S, 180E, 50N” is now labeled as “Average Precipitation Rate monthly 0.25 deg. [TRMM TRMM_3B43 v7] mm/hr for DJF months 2009-Dec - 2014-Feb, Region 180W, 50S, 180E, 50N”.

Vector support has been re-enabled for Time Averaged and Overlay Maps. Variables that can be displayed as vectors (such as wind velocity) can be mapped. Variables expressed as vectors can be found by typing “vector” in the Keyword Search field.

The units column is now shown immediately to the right of the variable name. This will make it more convenient for the users to compare units between variables.

New Data Variables

AMSR2/GCOM-W1 surface soil moisture (LPRM) L3 1 day 10 km x 10 km descending V001 (4 variables)

A11A-1867: AIRS-only Product on Giovanni for Exploring Up-to-date

AIRS Observation and Comparing with AIRS+AMSU Product,

08:00 - 12:20, Poster Hall D-F Feng Ding, ADNET Systems Inc. ; Thomas J. Hearty, SGT Inc.; Michael Theobald,

ADNET Systems Inc.; Bruce Vollmer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Jennifer

Wei, ADNET Systems Inc.

The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) has been the

home of processing, archiving, and distribution services for the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)

mission since its launch in 2002 for the global observations of the atmospheric state. Giovanni, a web-

based application developed by the GES DISC, provides a simple and intuitive way to visualize, analyze,

and access vast amounts of Earth science remote sensing data without having to download the data.

Most important variables, including temperature and humidity profiles, outgoing longwave radiation,

cloud properties, and trace gases, from version 6 AIRS product are available on Giovanni.

The AIRS is an instrument suite comprised of a hyperspectral infrared instrument AIRS and two

multichannel microwave instruments, the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) and the

Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB). As the HSB ceased operation in very early stage of AIRS mission,

the AIRS project operates two parallel retrieval algorithms: one using both IR and MW measurements

(AIRS+AMSU) and the other using only IR measurements (AIRS-only) for the most time of the

mission. The AIRS+AMSU product is better and the variables on Giovanni are from it. However, the

generation of AIRS+AMSU product has been suspended since the AMSU instrument anomaly

occurred in late 2016. To continue exploring up-to-date AIRS observations, the same set of variables

from the AIRS-only product are added on Giovanni by the GES DISC. This will also support the

comparison of AIRS-only with AIRS+AMSU retrievals. In the presentation, we will demonstrate the

visualization of AIRS-only product and the plots/statistics of comparison with AIRS+AMSU product

using Giovanni.

A13D-2101: Accessing Suomi NPP OMPS Products Through the GES

DISC Online Data Services, 13:40 - 18:00, Poster Hall D-F James E. Johnson, ADNET Systems Inc.; Jennifer C. Wei, ADNET Systems Inc.; Irina

Gerasimov; ADNET Systems Inc.; Bruce Vollmer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

IN21B-0039: GES DISC Datalist Improves Earth Science Data

Discoverability, 08:00 - 12:20, Poster Hall D-F Angela Li, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; William L. Teng, ADNET Systems

Inc.; Mahabal Hegde, ADNET Systems Inc.; Maksym Petrenko, ADNET Systems

Inc.; Suhung Shen, George Mason University; Chung-Lin Shie, NASA Goddard

Space Flight Center; Zhong Liu, George Mason University; Thomas Hearty, Wyle

Information Systems, Inc.; Keith Bryant, ADNET Systems Inc.; Bruce Vollmer,

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; David J. Meyer, NASA Goddard Space Flight

Center

IN23B-0088: Data and Science: GES DISC Users' Data Usage and

Science Exploration, 13:40 - 18:00, Poster Hall D-F Chung-Lin Shie, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Mary Greene, ADNET

Systems Inc.; James G. Acker, ADNET Systems Inc.; Guang-Dih Lei, Adnet Systems

Inc.; Atheer F. Al-Jazrawi, Telophase Corporation; David J. Meyer, NASA Goddard

Space Flight Center

ED23D-0324: GES DISC Data Recipes in Jupyter Notebooks

13:40 - 18:00, Poster Hall D-FAngela Li, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Ben Banavige, Harvard University;

Karthik Garimella, Washington University in St Louis; Justin Rice, NASA Goddard

Space Flight Center; Suhung Shen, George Mason University; Zhong Liu, NASA

Goddard Space Flight Center

ED21A-0260: Access NASA Satellite Global Precipitation Data

Visualization on YouTube, 08:00 - 12:20, Poster Hall D-F Zhong Liu, George Mason University; Jian Su, ADNET Systems Inc.; James G. Acker,

ADNET Systems Inc.; George John Huffman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center;

Bruce Vollmer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Adnet Systems Inc.; David J.

Meyer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

IN23A-0080: Giovanni in the Cloud: Earth Science Data Exploration

in Amazon Web Services, 13:40 - 18:00, Poster Hall D-F Maksym Petrenko, ADNET Systems Inc.; Mahabal Hegde; ADNET Systems Inc.;

Christine Smit, Telophase, Inc.; Hailiang Zhang, ADNET Systems, Inc., Paul Pilone,

Element84; Andrey A. Zasorin, Telophase, Inc.; Long Pham, NASA Goddard Space

Flight Center

Giovanni (https://giovanni.gsfc.nasa.gov/giovanni/) is a popular online data exploration tool at

the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information Services Center (GES DISC), providing 22

analysis and visualization services for over 1600 Earth Science data variables. Owing to its popularity,

Giovanni has experienced a consistent growth in overall demand, with periodic usage spikes attributed

to trainings by education organizations, extensive data analysis in response to natural disasters,

preparations for science meetings, etc. Furthermore, the new generation of spaceborne sensors and

high resolution models have resulted in an exponential growth in data volume with data distributed

across the traditional boundaries of datacenters. Seamless exploration of data (without users having to

worry about data center boundaries) has been a key recommendation of the GES DISC User Working

Group. These factors have required new strategies for delivering acceptable performance.

The cloud-based Giovanni, built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), evaluates (1) AWS native solutions

to provide a scalable, serverless architecture; (2) open standards for data storage in the Cloud; (3) a

cost model for operations; and (4) end-user performance. Our preliminary findings indicate that the

use of serverless architecture has a potential to significantly reduce development and operational cost

of Giovanni. The combination of using AWS managed services, storage of data in open standards,

and schema-on-read data access strategy simplifies data access and analytics, in addition to making

data more accessible to the end users of Giovanni through popular programming languages.

IN23D-0111: Recovering Nimbus era Observations at the NASA GES

DISC, 13:40 - 18:00, Poster Hall D-F David J. Meyer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; James E. Johnson, ADNET

Systems Inc.; Asghar E. Esfandiari, ADNET Systems Inc.; Emily B. Zamkoff,

Telophase, Inc.; Atheer F. Al-Jazrawi, Telophase Inc.; Irina V. Gerasimov, ADNET

Systems Inc.; Gary T. Alcott, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

H21F-1558: Enabling NLDAS-2 Anomaly Analysis Using Giovanni,

08:00 - 12:20, Poster Hall D-F Carlee Loeser, ADNET Systems Inc.; Hualan Rui, ADNET Systems Inc.; William L.

Teng, ADNET Systems Inc.; Bruce Vollmer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center;

David M. Mocko, SAIC.

A newly implemented feature in Giovanni (NASA Geospatial Interactive Online

Visualization and Analysis Interface) allows users to explore and visualize anomaly data

from the NLDAS-2 Primary Forcing and Noah model data sets. For a given

measurement and location, an anomaly describes how conditions for a particular time

period compare to normal conditions, based on long-term averages. Analyzing

anomalies is important for monitoring droughts, determining weather trends, and

studying land surface processes relevant for meteorology, hydrology, and climate. Using

Giovanni to analyze anomalies for NLDAS-2 data allows for these studies to be

efficiently conducted for the central North American region. Phase 2 of NLDAS

(NLDAS-2) currently runs at an 1/8th degree resolution, in near-real time, with data

sets extending back to January 1979. NLDAS-2 provides data for soil moisture,

precipitation, temperature, and other hydrology measurements. Hourly, monthly, and

30-year (1980-2009) monthly climatology data are available for several land surface

models and forcing data sets. The Giovanni anomaly tool calculates monthly anomalies,

for a given user-defined variable, as the difference between the NLDAS-2 monthly

climatology data and the monthly data. The resulting anomaly describes how a chosen

month compares to the 30-year monthly average. The presentation will demonstrate

the capabilities and usefulness of Giovanni’s anomaly tool, detail the recently added

NLDAS-2 variables for which anomalies are available, and show how users can access

the data.

IN24B-06: Challenges in Visualizing Satellite Level 2 Atmospheric

Data with GIS approach, 17:15 - 17:30, Convention Center - 228-230 Jennifer C. Wei, ADNET Systems Inc.; Wenli Yang, George Mason University;

Peisheng Zhao, George Mason University; Long Pham, NASA Goddard Space Flight

Center; David J. Meyer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

IN31A-0068: Use of Schema on Read in Earth Science Data

Archives, 08:00 - 12:20, Poster Hall D-F Mahabal Hegde, ADNET Systems Inc.; Christine Smit, Telophase, Inc.; Paul Pilone,

Element84; Maksym Petrenko; ADNET Systems Inc.; Long Pham, NASA Goddard

Space Flight Center

ED31B-0288: The NASA Earthdata Forums – An Interactive Venue

for Discussions of NASA Data and Earth Science, 08:00 - 12:20

Poster Hall D-FThomas J. Hearty, SGT Inc., James G. Acker, ADNET Systems Inc.; David J. Meyer,

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Emily Ann Northup, NASA Langley Research

Center; Ross Bagwell, Science Systems & Applications, Inc.

ED32B-07: Satellite Level 3 & 4 Data Subsetting at NASA GES

DISC, 11:50 - 12:05, Convention Center - 242 Paul Huwe, ADNET Systems, Inc., Jian Su, ADNET Systems Inc.; Carlee F. Loeser

ADNET Systems Inc.; Dana Ostrenga, ADNET Systems Inc.; Hualan Rui, ADNET

Systems Inc.; Bruce Vollmer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

MERRA-2 Monthly Surface

Wind Speed, May 2008, over

Antarctica, using the new

polar projection option in

Giovanni !

H41K-03: Restructuring Big Data to Improve Data Access and

Performance in Analytic Services Making Research More Efficient for

the Study of Extreme Weather Events and Application User

Communities, 08:30 - 08:45, Convention Center 291-292Dana Ostrenga, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Suhung Shen,

George Mason University; Bruce Vollmer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; David J.

Meyer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

IN41B-0037: Investigating Access Performance of Long Time Series

with Restructured Big Model Data, 08:00 - 12:20, Poster Hall D-FSuhung Shen, George Mason University; Dana Ostrenga, ADNET Systems Inc.; Bruce

Vollmer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; David J. Meyer, NASA Goddard Space

Flight Center

IN41B-0038: Complexities in Subsetting Satellite Level 2 Data,

08:00 - 12:20, Poster Hall D-F

Paul Huwe, ADNET Systems, Inc.; Jennifer Wei, ADNET Systems, Inc.;

Arif Albayrak, ADNET Systems Inc.; David S. Silberstein, ADNET Systems

Inc.; Jerome Alfred, ADNET Systems Inc.; Andrey K. Savtchenko, ADNET

Systems Inc., James E. Johnson, ADNET Systems Inc.; Thomas Hearty, SGT

Inc.; David J. Meyer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

IN42A-06: Mining Twitter Data Stream to Augment NASA GPM

Validation, 11:35 - 11:50, Convention Center - 231-232 William L. Teng, ADNET Systems Inc.; Arif Albayrak, ADNET Systems Inc.; George

John Huffman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Bruce Vollmer, NASA Goddard

Space Flight Center

IN41B-0039: The Value of Data and Metadata Standardization for

Interoperability in Giovanni, 08:00 - 12:20, Poster Hall D-F Christine Smit, Telophase, Inc.; Mahabal Hegde, ADNET Systems Inc.; Richard F. Strub,

ADNET Systems, Inc.; Keith Bryant, ADNET Systems Inc.; Angela Li, NASA Goddard

Space Flight Center; Maksym Petrenko, ADNET Systems Inc.

Giovanni (https://giovanni.gsfc.nasa.gov/giovanni/) is a data exploration and visualization tool

at the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information Services Center (GES DISC). It has

been around in one form or another for more than 15 years. Giovanni calculates simple statistics

and produces 22 different visualizations for more than 1600 geophysical parameters from more

than 90 satellite and model products.

Giovanni relies on external data format standards to ensure interoperability, including the

NetCDF CF Metadata Conventions. Unfortunately, these standards were insufficient to make

Giovanni's internal data representation truly simple to use. Finding and working with

dimensions can be convoluted with the CF Conventions. Furthermore, the CF Conventions are

silent on machine-friendly descriptive metadata such as the parameter's source product and

product version.

In order to simplify analyzing disparate earth science data parameters in a unified way, we

developed Giovanni's internal standard. First, the format standardizes parameter dimensions

and variables so they can be easily found. Second, the format adds all the machine-friendly

metadata Giovanni needs to present our parameters to users in a consistent and clear manner. At

a glance, users can grasp all the pertinent information about parameters both during parameter

selection and after visualization.

This poster gives examples of how our metadata and data standards, both external and internal,

have both simplified our code base and improved our users' experiences.

IN52A-03: Developing Information Services and Tools to Access and

Evaluate Data Quality in Global Satellite-based Precipitation

Products, 10:29 - 10:32, eLightning Area Zhong Liu, George Mason University; Chung-Lin Shie, NASA Goddard Space Flight

Center; David J. Meyer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Global satellite-based precipitation products have been widely used in research and

applications around the world. Compared to ground-based observations, satellite-based

measurements provide precipitation data on a global scale, especially in remote continents

and over oceans. Over the years, satellite-based precipitation products have evolved from

single sensor and single algorithm to multi-sensors and multi-algorithms. As a result, many

satellite-based precipitation products have been enhanced such as spatial and temporal

coverages. With inclusion of ground-based measurements, biases of satellite-based

precipitation products have been significantly reduced. However, data quality issues still exist

and can be caused by many factors such as observations, satellite platform anomaly,

algorithms, production, calibration, validation, data services, etc.

The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services Center (DISC) is

home to NASA global precipitation product archives including the Tropical Rainfall

Measuring Mission (TRMM), the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), as well as other

global and regional precipitation products. Precipitation is one of the top downloaded and

accessed parameters in the GES DISC data archive. Meanwhile, users want to easily locate

and obtain data quality information at regional and global scales to better understand how

precipitation products perform and how reliable they are. As data service providers, it is

necessary to provide an easy access to data quality information, however, such information

normally is not available, and when it is available, it is not in one place and difficult to locate.

In this presentation, we will present challenges and activities at the GES DISC to address

precipitation data quality issues.

IN52A-07: Comparing AIRS/AMSU-A Satellite and

MERRA/MERRA-2 Reanalysis products with In-situ Station

Observations at Summit, Greenland, 10:41 - 10:44, eLightning Area Thomas J. Hearty, SGT Inc.; Bruce Vollmer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center;

Jennifer C. Wei; ADNET Systems Inc.; Paul M. Huwe, ADNET Systems Inc.; Arif

Albayrak, ADNET Systems Inc.; Dong Liang Wu, NASA Goddard Space Flight

Center; Richard I. Cullather, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; David J. Meyer

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, GES DISC; Jae N. Lee, University of Maryland-

Baltimore County; John M. Blaisdell, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Joel

Susskind, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Sophie Nowicki, NASA Goddard

Space Flight Center

A53L-01: Is it Becoming Warmer and Wetter in the Antarctic? A

Look at Evaporation from the Southern Ocean (Invited), Friday,

December 15, 2017, 13:40 - 13:55, Convention Center 392 Linette Boisvert, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center; Chung-Lin Shie,

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

IN21B-0046: Progress Report on the Airborne Composition Standard

Variable Name and Time Series Working Groups of the 2017

ESDSWG, Tuesday, December 12, 08:00 - 12:20, Poster Hall D-F Keith D. Evans, University of Maryland Baltimore County; Amanda Benson Early,

NASA Langley Research Center; Emily Ann Northup; NASA Langley Research

Center; Daniel P. Ames, Brigham Young University; William L. Teng, ADNET

Systems Inc.; Stephen W. Olding, Columbus Technologies and Services; Nickolay

Anatoly Krotkov; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

IN34A-01: Earth sensing: from ice to the Internet of Things

(Invited) Wednesday, December 13, 2017 16:12 - 16:57

Convention Center - La Nouvelle AB

Given by Kirk Martinez, University of Southampton

Bonus Giovanni Image

NLDAS 0.125 degree hourly surface pressure, 09Z on

September 11, 2017, during the transit of Hurricane Irma

over the Florida peninsula (first seen on Twitter,

https://twitter.com/NASA_Giovanni).